August 24, 2006

Update: Money Transfer Still In Limbo

For those keeping score at home, the financial issues between eTrade and Wells Fargo still have not sorted themselves out. In a highly wired world, it seems the only "instant" way to send cash is to use PayPal - and I don't know anybody who has yet managed to tie their stock brokerage into the online payment eBay subsidiary.

To recap:

* On Thursday at noon, I sold half of my Apple stock holdings in eTrade, both to diversify, and to raise needed cash.

* Friday, Saturday and Sunday went by. No sign of my cash in eTrade being available to transfer out of eTrade.

* Monday night, after checking throughout the day, the money became available, and I immediately set up to transfer $5k to Wells Fargo.

* Tuesday and Wednesday... nothing. Now that it's early Thursday morning, the money is no longer in eTrade, and certainly is not at Wells Fargo yet, let alone ready to be spent or written out in a check to my wife. (One potential recipient)

Are you telling me that with some of the most online-savvy brokers, it takes a whole week to sell stock, and transfer the proceeds from one account to another? Color me unimpressed.